Motoring: Value for money

The concept of cheap and cheerful appeals for the obvious reasons: the prospect of something-for-(nearly)-nothing; the assumption that it does exactly what it says on the tin; the lack of pretentiousness — suggesting that its owner is also virtuously free of that forgivable vice — and the freedom from burdensome excess. However, the assumption that cheap and cheerful go naturally together is about as accurate as the identification of poverty with virtue: occasionally yes, often no.

It’s different with cars — at least, it is now. Hitherto cheap cars were often shoddily assembled from poor materials by workers who didn’t care and managers who failed to manage all but their pension funds. They were rusting before they left the factory. But I’m not sure there is a bad car now; there are varying degrees of competence, achievement and durability, of course, yet even the cheapest, such as the £6,995 Citroën C1 or the £7,795 Kia Picanto (with seven-year warranty), will dependably do 90 per cent of what your quarter-million Rolls-Royce Phantom will do (with no seven-year warranty). And they’ll last as long as you’re prepared to keep them going.

I had a week or two recently with a Skoda Fabia. At £9,880–£16,415 it’s not the cheapest but it’s certainly cheerful. In fact, it’s cheaper than described: you should get 10 to 20 per cent off-list through any of its 220 dealers, while Skoda itself is offering its £11,995 1.4-litre Greenline 11 eco model (89g/km and 83.1 mpg combined) for £8,995. I had the base model with the 1.2-litre three-cylinder petrol engine. The motoring press rates it overall as a good-value car, roomier than you’d think with acceptable interior materials but with handling on the soft side and a little lacking in power.